h's sentiment, and held Paestum to be probably the
most impressive monument on earth; but here at Segeste a nature less
austere, and more RIANTE in its wildness, lent a quite different
charm to a scene which could scarcely be represented by art, and for
which a reader could certainly not be _prepared_ by description. We
gave an antiquarian's devoutest worship to this venerable survivor of
2000 years, and of many empires--we _felt_ the vast masses of its
time-tried Doric, and even the wild flowers within its precincts, its
pink valerians; its _erba di vento_, its scented wallflower. The
whole scene kept our admiration long tasked, but untired. A smart
shower compelled us to seek shelter under the shoulder of one of the
grey entablatures: it soon passed away, leaving us a legacy of the
richest fragrance, while a number of wild birds of the hawk kind,
called "chaoli" from their shrill note, issued from their
hiding-places, and gave us wild music as they scudded by!

A few bits of wall scattered over the corn-fields are all that now
remains of the dwellings of the men who built this temple for their
city, and who, by its splendour, deluded the Athenians into a belief
of greater wealth than they possessed.

Our ascent to the theatre, the day after, proved to be a very steep
one, of half an hour on mule-back; in making which, we scared two of
those prodigious birds, the _ospreys_, who, having reconnoitred us,
forthwith began to wheel in larger and larger sweeps, and at last
made off for the sea. We found the interior of the theatre occupied
by an audience ready for our arrival; it consisted of innummerable
_hawks_, the chaoli just mentioned, which began to scream at our
intrusion. The ospreys soon returned, and were plainly only waiting
our departure to subside upon their solitary domain. We would not be
a soft-billed bird for something in this neighbourhood; no song would
save them from the hawks' supper. Having luxuriated on the 24th of
May for full four hours in this enchanting neighbourhood, we were
sorry to return to our inn--and such an inn! We departed abruptly,
and probably never to return; but we shall think of Segeste in Hyde
Park, or as we pass the candlestick Corinthians of Whitehall.
Thucydides[16] relates that a prevailing notion in his time was, that
the _Trojans_ after losing _Troy_ went first to _Sicily_, and founded
there Egesta and Eryx. Now, as on the same authority the first
_Greek_ colony was _Naxos_,